Agile set to overtake HTML as CV prerequisite

CWJobs.co.uk also found that jobs in the North are declining, whilst the South continues to grow

If requests for agile development skills by recruiters continue on their current trajectory, they will overtake HTML as a CV prerequisite by the end of the year, according IT recruitment specialist CWJobs.co.uk.

In the third quarter of 2010 CWJobs had 3,283 requests for CVs with agile present as a skill. This nearly doubled in the third quarter of 2012 to 6,441 – only 129 requests short of HTML, which stands at 6,570 requests this quarter.

Agile has become the poster child for effective and efficient development in the IT industry, but many departments struggle to implement it effectively. Government especially has tried to implement it where possible, but has come under fire in the past for not doing it enough.

The top five most requested skills are SQL (20,960), C (14,201), C# (13,780), .NET (12,388), and Java (9,856), which have all held the top of the table for the past five years, despite the emergence of dozens of new languages and techniques.

CWJobs’ website director, Richard Nott, said: “In such a fast moving industry it’s surprising to see such sustainability from skill sets. These skills, however, are no longer showing the rapid growth demonstrated by Agile, so I’d expect to see some movement over the next few years.”

CWJobs’ data also found that job postings overall have grown by a third in the last three years, following the slump from the recession. However, despite the government’s pledge to make the recovery nationwide, vacancies in the north of England continue to decline, while London and the South East lead the growth.

For example, inner London job adverts stood at just 989 in the third quarter of 2009, but rose to 1,831 in the third quarter of 2012. However, in the North West, figures for the same period dropped from 763 in 2009, to 642 in 2012.

He warned that agile isn’t right for every project, especially in large enterprises.

Stuart Silberg said: ““I would throw a word of caution, agile isn’t perfect for everything. We once did a big integration project with some back-end systems and quite frankly we shouldn’t have done it in an agile manner.”